New York Yankees

The 2013 amateur draft will be held from June 6-8 this year, and between now and then I’m going to highlight some prospects individually rather than lump them together into larger posts. (Photo via AzDiamondReport.com) Dustin Peterson | SS Background Peterson attends Gilbert High School in the Phoenix suburbs, and he has his brother D.J. to thank for his prospect stock. D.J. will come out of New Mexico as a fringe first rounder this year after going undrafted in 2010, leading a lot of teams to believe they dropped the ball while scouting him in high school. That has led to Dustin getting a lot of extra attention this spring. He is committed to Arizona State and played very well in front of scouts this spring. Scouting Report Listed at 6-foot-2 and 180 lbs., Peterson’s best tool is his sweet right-handed swing and high-end bat speed. He’s very quick to the ball and he uses his lower half well, generating above-average power in addition to the ability to hit for average. Peterson has no trouble against good fastballs and he recognizes offspeed stuff well. The bat isn’t much of a question, but his long-term position is. Peterson is a good athlete but he lacks the first step quickness needed to play shortstop long-term. His hands are fine but his arm isn’t anything special, making second base a more likely destination than third. The outfield could also be a possibility. Peterson is just an okay runner who won’t steal many bases. He’s not a bat-only prospect, but he is bat-first. I can’t find any video — there’s another kid named Dustin Peterson with a bunch of YouTube clips, but it’s not this Dustin Peterson. Miscellany Keith Law (subs. req’d) and Baseball America ranked Peterson as the 36th and 61st best draft prospect in their latest draft rankings, respectively, so there’s a pretty big split of opinions. Dustin is more advanced than his brother was at this age, and there’s a chance D.J. will be a top-15 pick in a few weeks. If a team thinks Dustin can remain at shortstop, he could go in the back-half of the first round. If not — and I’m guessing at least one of the 30 teams thinks he can play short long-ish term — he might be more of a second round guy. The Yankees have three first rounders (26th, 32nd, 33rd) and they love up-the-middle athletes, especially when they can hit. Peterson is right up their alley. Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blog2013 Draft: Dustin Peterson

Just in case you hadn't heard the news, the Seattle Mariners will be sending Jesus Montero down to their triple-A affiliate in Tacoma. The Mariners have just finished up a 2-7 road trip - their two wins came here against the Yankees, of course - and along with sending Montero down, they're recalling catcher Jesus Sucre to replace him. Yes, there are two Jesuses and they're both catchers. Or are they? It seems the Mariners may be finally realizing that they would be better served with Montero at either DH or even first base because he's just not cutting it at catcher. Hey, the Yankees could have told them that! So this is an interesting development. With Michael Pineda on his way back from shoulder surgery and eyeing a June return - barring any setbacks, naturally - and Montero back in the Minors for the Mariners, I wonder who will make it back to the big leagues first. I also wonder if we will finally know after all this time, who actually won that damn trade?

It’s not the weekend.  Hell, it’s not even Friday!  But it is Thursday, which means you get another Thursday afternoon RAB Live Chat with yours truly (it’s hard to decide which of us is the bigger glutton for punishment, eh?) — anyway, the party kicks off at at 2 PM EST.  Bring yourself.  Bring your friends.  Bring your baseball banter.  See you all there! Post from: River Ave. Blues A New York Yankees blogRAB Live Chat Reminder

The story. Donnie is a friend of mine. Rip, rip, rip… He can rip it, any time. Rip, rip, rip… Any time, any place. Rip, rip, rip… He can rip it in your face! Rip, rip, rip… Seriously, I have lost a lot of respect for Andre Either today.

Author's note: this was written in the Java Moon Cafe in Penn Station in Baltimore on Wednesday afternoon while waiting for the 4.15pm Bolt Bus to New York, and then uploaded while on that bus. However, to avoid the logjam of game-time entries, it's gone up on Thursday afternoon, so the results of Wednesday's game were unknown to me as I wrote it. Also: living in the 21st century is awesome. I have a lot of friends in Baltimore, and one in particular has been trying to get me to join her for a game at Camden Yards. Tuesday night, this long-term plan of hers finally came to fruition, as I hopped on a Bolt Bus that took me from one Penn Station to another, and then I joined five friends (four Orioles fans and one person who was indifferent) for Tuesday's tilt between the O's and Yanks. While the end result was a disappointment—the Yanks lost 3-2 in extra innings—the general experience was fantastic. This was my first trip to Camden Yards, and it was definitely worth it. Some notes on the experience... The hype is justified. I've been hearing about how amazing Camden Yards is for two decades now, starting when the place opened, and continuing to shortly after I posted a Facebook status update saying I was going there for the first time. "You'll love it!" "It's a great park!" "Haven't been in ages, but it was fantastic!" "Go to Boog's BBQ!" "Be sure to drink a Natty Boh!" And so on. So I had a genuine concern that it wouldn't live up to the hype, which was considerable. Said concern was wholly unfounded. The Yards are beautiful, with an open plan that gives you the feeling of an old-time ballpark (or a minor league park), with the added benefit of tons of exposed brick, superb sightlines, and a good placement of ad space that allows the folks who paid for them to get their money's worth without being obtrusive. (Yes, Yankee Stadium, I'm looking at you.) Our upper-deck seats in Section 344 behind home plate on the third base side had a great view (see picture above). A friend told me that the prices deliberately go up during Yankees and Red Sox games in order to fleece the out-of-towners who hop the Bolt Bus or Amtrak down from New York and Boston, but even with that, the concessions were fairly reasonably priced. I wasn't able to take in the full range of available foodstuffs, but I will give credit to the vendor from whom I bought a hot dog. Rather than give out condiments in packets, the vendors apply the ketchup, mustard, relish, or whatever themselves. My vendor was very generous with the mustard, which I greatly appreciated. It was the first really muggy day of the year, and there was lots of water being brought around, as well as lemonade. Interestingly, unlike what I've seen in other ballparks, the same person would carry beer and water. (By the way, regarding the suggestions above, I was unable to make it to Boog's, but plan to next time, and I made the mistake of drinking Natty Boh once about fifteen years ago. I don't ever really need to do that again.) History. The O's have a pretty storied history since moving to Bawlmer from St. Louis. (Amusingly, there is no evidence that the O's were ever the St. Louis Browns on display in the Yards that I could find. Given the Brownies' history, including just the one pennant in 1944 when most of the good players were fighting in World War II, this isn't much of a surprise.) A lot of that history can be found in front of Gate H, the gate closest to the light rail station and the convention center, and where they display all the O's retired numbers as standalone statues depicting the number in question, along with a plaque identifying the player and the year the number was retired. There's also a statue of Babe Ruth as a youth, identifying him as a "native Baltimorean." (At least they have a more legitimate claim to Ruth, who was born and raised in Charm City, as opposed to the tenuous claim they have on Edgar Allan Poe just 'cause he happened to die th

NEW YORK, May 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ – New York Mets first baseman Ike Davis and New York Yankees relief pitcher David Robertson are representing their peers and going to bat for Superstorm Sandy victims, when they co-host a Players Trust all-star golf tournament on Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, Long Island onWednesday, July 17.Golfers and baseball fans alike will be able to combine two of America’s greatest passions during an unforgettable day on one of the country’s most famous golf courses – Bethpage Black – while helping Major Leaguers and the Players Trust raise funds to support Superstorm Sandy recovery and rebuilding efforts.  Already scheduled to join Ike and David in their efforts to help Sandy victims are former big leaguers Bobby Bonilla , Aaron Boone , Ron Darling , Ken Griffey Jr. , Al Leiter and Jeff Nelson .  Additional players joining the cause will be announced on an ongoing basis.“I’m looking forward to teaming up with David Robertson , the Players Trust, and members of the fraternity of Major League baseball players, to help raise funds and awareness for Superstorm Sandy victims,” stated Ike.  “This July, New York will become the center of the baseball universe, and it’s only fitting that the baseball-playing community use this as an opportunity to assist the thousands of people in the area impacted by the storm who support our great game on a daily basis.”“As Major League baseball players we’re given a stage to help raise awareness for victims of natural disasters long after the immediate attention subsides,” said David, who, along with his wife, Erin, created the High Socks for Hope foundation to lend support to those suffering in the wake of natural disasters, including Sandy. “I’m looking forward to joining forces with Ike Davis and a who’s-who list of former big leaguers to do our part to help communities still suffering from the effects of such a devastating storm.”The Players Trust all-star golf tournament on Bethpage Black is part of the non-profit’s Disaster Relief programming efforts. In addition to what many players have done individually, Major Leaguers have committed up to $500,000 in aid from the Players Trust to non-profit organizations helping victims of Sandy recover from the destruction.  To date, the Players Trust has directly contributed more than $175,000 to various organizations providing needed assistance to storm victims.  Among those receiving funds are Red Hook Initiative (Brooklyn); Project Hospitality (Staten Island); Rockaway Reach (Rockaway, NY); NJ 2-1-1 (New Jersey); Pitch In for Baseball and Points of Light’s Long Island Recovery Volunteer Center.  A separate$100,000 contribution from the Players Trust to New York State’s Natural Heritage Trust will go toward the removal of hundreds of downed trees and improvements to damaged turf on public golf courses.On November 2, 2012, Major Leaguers joined forces with the Commissioner’s Office in contributing a combined $1 million to the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army and Feeding America to assist emergency relief efforts in the most devastated areas along the East Coast affected by Sandy. On May 9, the MLBPA and MLB-operated Baseball Tomorrow Fund joined with the New York Mets Foundation to contribute up to $1 million through a relief grant program for youth baseball and softball organizations that were directly affected by the storm.Golf tournament participation levels begin with the $8,000 Single, which includes one foursome with a celebrity pairing, a unique, gift-filled SWAG bag and photo for each golfer, and four tickets to the post-event dinner, to be held at luxurious Carlyle on the Green. Double, Triple and Home Run sponsorship levels are also available, and each includes tickets to the Trust’s exclusive 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star Game viewing party to be held the night before the golf t

Good one.

This is what Joe Girardi said about Curtis Granderson on Tuesday night: “I think his swing is coming. I think you’re starting to see him drive some baseballs, and that’s a good sign. He didn’t have a normal spring training for him, but I think he’s getting closer, and I think he’s about ready to take off.” This is what Granderson did on Wednesday night: 3-for-3 with a double, a home run, two-runs scored and a batting average that rose nearly 100 points in the span of nine innings. “It’s just a matter of getting comfortable and getting timing right and getting in a rhythm and going from there,” Granderson said. “It’s one of those baseball things. You can’t really pinpoint it exactly. It’s just going to end up happening one day. Could be one swing. Could be one at-bat. Could be one day.” The Yankees season might be almost two months old, but Granderson has played only seven games. Those games weren’t going particularly well until last night, when he finally got his first extra-base hit (the third-inning double), his first home run and his first RBI. The Yankees are banking on Granderson providing some middle-of-the-order pop, and he finally showed it last night. “It’s a result oriented game, so you always want to see that stuff,” Granderson said. “At the same time, the feel is the most important thing. Whenever you do get the feel, then you’re in a better situation to get the results that you want. That’s what I’m still working on right now, just getting that feel.” Granderson said he feels no pain in his forearm, playing all three outfield positions hasn’t affected him — “It’s not anything foreign. It’s not anything more exciting or less exciting,” he said — and he hasn’t been bothered by moving up and down the lineup. The biggest thing was getting healthy, getting into his routine, and trusting that the production would come. “It’s just like the opening week of the season for me,” Granderson said. “… If I had 100 home runs right now, I’d be no different. It’s just part of the beginning of the season. You’ve got to get through it, and things are going to go ahead and change and even themselves out after you get into the next week, and then the next month, and into the halfway point and then toward the end of the season. I would expect things to go ahead and even themselves out. No matter what you end up doing, you’re not going to stay on pace like that. If you had zero hits or a thousand hits, things aren’t going to stay that way.” Associated Press photo The post Granderson: “Everything feels good” appeared first on The LoHud Yankees Blog.

Coolin’. [Photo Via: The Indifference]

This is the fourth and final installment of our sit-down with MLBPA Executive Director, Michael Weiner where we talk about how the Yankees business model has effected baseball at large and some other good stuff that you the fans want to hear about. As is well known, the Yankees, by virtue of their market and stature as baseball's premiere franchise, are able to do business unlike most teams in baseball as they can afford to pay top dollar for the best possible talent. However, as history has shown many times that has hurt them because having all the money in the world doesn't mean much if you don't know how to spend it wisely (Insert awful contract reference here). For a while, a significant number of teams around Major League Baseball attempted to try and beat the Yankees at their own game but since no one else can do what the Yankees can, it set a number of these teams back several years as a result of them signing players to bloated contracts that never really panned out. Some would argue that the Steinbrenner model of constructing a winning baseball team has been bad for the game and other would argue to the contrary. Weiner's take on it was as follows: "I think it's been great for the Yankees and when George Steinbrenner decided to sign Reggie Jackson, Derek Jeter, or even Alex Rodriguez he wasn't trying to do what was best for the game, he was trying to do what was best for the Yankees. The way the Yankee brand has been built up since when Steinbrenner took over the team has been phenomenal and that's been in large part because of his willingness to spend on players. In retrospect have some of those players outperformed their contracts? Yes. Have some of those players under-performed those contracts? Yes. But overall the Yankee brand has been phenomenally successful and that has been very helpful to the growth of the game of baseball but that's not why George Steinbrenner did it and that's not the way the economics of baseball work. The economics of the game work by teams trying to maximize their local revenue, their local attendance, and their local media and what the Yankees have done in terms of maximizing all three of those areas has been phenomenal so my view is that the Yankees have done as good of a job as anybody over the last 25 years of embellishing their brand and maximizing their revenue while coming up with new and major revenue streams and they deserve a lot of credit for that." Click “View Full Post” to continue.